Civil Liberties in the United States:
Japanese Internment and The PATRIOT Act
Olajuwan White
English 11/AP US History
MS.Sheffer/MS.Bowman
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Picture yourself at home enjoying the day watching the news. Then all of the
sudden a group of officers burst into your room saying you are under arrest. You are
confused as to why when one officer informs you your uncle committed a crime and now
you are under arrest as a suspect because of who shares the same DNA as you. You are
then held and receive no opportunity to see a judge and are denied your constitutional
rights. This same kind of scenario happened to the Japanese-Americans during World
War 2 and all Americans in today’s era. In all 3 situations these people were persecuted
and imprisoned. The PATRIOT Act and Japanese internment were unconstitutional
because they denied basic constitutional rights from the people born in the United States.
During WWII after the bombing of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese the US
government was very skeptical of the Japanese-Americans and their loyalty to the United
States, although most were not loyal Japan and a lot were actually second or later
generation in the US. To deter any top secret information from going to Japan by way of
Japanese- Americans the US government decided to relocate Japanese-Americans into
internment camps all over the West coast of the US. This caused many JapaneseAmericans to lose their homes, businesses, and jobs. While in these camps JapaneseAmericans “faced many hardships together” For example, their homes were “small
shacks that fit anywhere from one to three families”. Also there was little food and
temperatures were extremely either cold or hot. All of this happened to JapaneseAmericans, an entire race of people, were imprisoned without each being convicted of a
crime. This is why the Japanese American imprisonment was unjustifiable and
unconstitutional.
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Another modern day act that overshadows American’s constitutional rights is the
PATRIOT Act. The PATRIOT Act was an act passes by Congress a month after 9/11 and
was not thoroughly gone over. This Act overthrows many of the constitutional rights for
“national security”. For example it allows for Americans to be imprisoned without a trial
and be refused a attorney such as the Japanese Americans during WWII. It also allows for
the suppression of freedom of association. This has led to the a unknown number of
people being put into some form of prison because of this act and its power over the
constitution. This is why the PATRIOT Act is unconstitutional.
Both the Patriot Act and the Japanese-American Internment are both
unconstitutional acts that happened to American civilians. Both events suppressed rights
that were guaranteed to them. The Japanese internment event was in the past and has
since then been given reparations for which was a good thing, however the real thing that
should of happened was that a lesson should have been learned from this incident. That
during a time of war we cannot declare martial law and erase everything that gives liberty
to the citizens of a nation.
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Works Cited
Infoplease. Infoplease, n.d. Web. 12 June 2012.
<http://www.infoplease.com/spot/internment1.html>.
"Japanese Internment." Japanese Internment. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 June 2012. <http://www.u-shistory.com/pages/h1679.html>.
"World War Two - Japanese Internment Camps in the USA." World War Two. N.p., n.d. Web.
12 June 2012. <http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW2/japan_internment_camps.htm>.
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Author Biography
Olajuwan White was born in 1995 in Oakland, California. He is currently
attending Castlemont High School and plans to later attend college and get a degree in
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. He lives in Oakland with his family.
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